Red Hat unveiled Fedora Hummingbird, a new, continuously updated version of Fedora, at Red Hat Summit 2026. Linux, formed as a collection of containers. To reduce the attack surface, the containers include only the minimum set of components necessary to solve specific problems. Software versions are updated promptly, whenever possible immediately after release by the main projects. The update installation process is automated. The tools used in the project are open sourced under the MIT license.
Container images are published for the amd64 and arm64 architectures. The catalog currently offers 49 container variants (157 including FIPS and multi-arch editions), enabling deployment of work environments with Python, Go, Node.js, Rust, Ruby, OpenJDK, .NET, PostgreSQL, nginx, and other open source projects. The images are built according to the "Distroless" principle, meaning they do not include a package manager or shell, but contain only the target application and the components required for its operation.
Ninety-five percent of the packages used in Hummingbird container images are built from the Fedora Rawhide repository, while the remaining 5% are downloaded and built directly from the upstream project repositories. This 5% includes applications that are not available in Rawhide or that have older releases in Rawhide. To build Hummingbird independently of Fedora, custom RPM packages are separately maintained and built using a separate infrastructure from standard Fedora SPEC files, allowing for project-specific optimizations and modifications to be added as needed.
The provided builds are compatible with images from Docker Hub, Red Hat UBI, and other registries, simplifying the migration of existing systems to Hummingbird. Unlike the CoreOS project, which provides minimalist host builds for container orchestration, Hummingbird is aimed at developers who need to simultaneously use different runtime versions (Python 3.11-3.14, Go 1.25-1.26, Node.js 20-25, etc.) and maintain separate lifecycles for each version.
Unlike traditional containers, most Hummingbird variants run by default under an unprivileged, non-root user. Containers support reproducible builds and can be rebuilt by the user from the provided source code to ensure that their own images and those distributed by the project are completely consistent. To simplify verification, source containers with all the necessary code and source RPM packages are provided separately. To ensure security, the container contents are built in an isolated, network-disabled environment.
In addition to containers for running endpoint applications, the project is developing a bootc-os bootable host image, built using bootable container technology and suitable for installation on disk. The system image combines Hummingbird components, kernel packages, and other components. Linux From the CKI (Continuous Kernel Integration) project, the bootloader, and system services are from Fedora. The entire system is implemented as an OCI container. Bootc-os is updated automatically on every reboot. Podman and Skopeo are used to launch containers from the bootc-os environment.
Source: opennet.ru
